A name lookup engine allows a user to retrieve information regarding a person by typing in that person's name. However, this type of engine is not always successful in locating the desired information. In one case, for instance, a user may have forgotten how to spell the person's name. Or the user may have never seen the person's name written out or in print. As a result, the user may type in the incorrect spelling of the person's name, possibly preventing the lookup engine from locating the desired information.
In another case, the name lookup engine may respond to a name query by returning a list of names. An entry in this list may in fact correspond to the person that the user is looking for. However, the user may have difficulty quickly identifying the desired entry in the list. This may be particularly true for some queries. For example, a user who enters “John Smith” into a lookup engine may have difficulty making use of a long list which includes, for example, multiple “J. Smith” entries.
More generally, name lookup engines may sometimes have difficulty determining the actual search objectives of a user on the basis of an input name, whether spelled correctly or incorrectly. Similar shortcomings may be present in other types of lookup engines.